Significant Growth Opportunities For Wind Energy In Emerging Markets

A new report launched by the European Wind Energy Association at its 2013 Annual Event in Vienna and online deems emerging markets like Romania, Poland, and Turkey as possible emerging markets for wind energy.

“These emerging markets are not only important in their own right, but they have increased perceived importance given the state of wind energy markets elsewhere in Europe,” Pierre Tardieu from EWEA said on launching the report today.

Image Credit: Vestas Wind

Emerging markets “are experiencing teething problems very similar to what we’ve experienced in the rest of the world,” said Inigio Sabater Eizaguirre from Vestas, who was in attendance at the annual meeting. He added that the European markets are attractive to companies like Vestas and that the ongoing recovery from the economic crisis is “big incentive” to look for new markets outside of the well-established markets already in existence throughout Europe.

Another unlikely issue at play is the EU Cohesion Funds worth €240 million earmarked for wind energy have not yet been spent. We need to make sure these funds are used, otherwise these unspent funds are returned to the EU’s biggest contributors like Germany, Tardieu said.

There are emerging markets all across the world, in South America and South-East Asia, that are starting to boom. There is a conscientious effort to step away from traditional and harmful electricity generation methods and towards the bountiful reserves of wind, and the growth in wind energy technology has suffused emerging markets across the planet.

The EWEA report, available now to attendees of EWEA 2013 in Vienna and online, highlighted several key requirements for wind energy developers in emerging markets:

Stable national frameworks to support wind (in particular no further retroactive changes which make wind financing very expensive)

National frameworks which are compliant with European Commission rules